Unlike the lively trade scene in Sconda, the procurement that Contai was responsible for was small in variety and quantity. However, they are all very important.

However, Guangzhou is a trading port and is located in the lower plain of the Pearl River Delta. Therefore, there is a lot of rice cultivation in the surrounding area. Most of the tung oil and lacquer trees are produced in hilly and mountainous areas, and most of them have been reclaimed into rice fields, and will not be wasted on growing trees, let alone around big cities like Guangzhou?

Therefore, despite the high price, Kong Tai's harvest is not very large. For example, he only purchased 500 catties of tung oil seeds, which basically swept away the inventory of tung oil seeds in Guangzhou. And the sumac seeds are even less, he only bought 300 catties, and he also bought all the sumac seeds in Guangzhou City. As for the bamboo seeds, it is even worse, there are only 5 catties of seeds from the bamboo forest in the north of the city......

It's not that these seeds are scarce in the world, but in a plain area like Guangzhou, these seeds are relatively rare. Because, even if these seeds are bought, they cannot be planted in the lower reaches of the Pearl River Delta. Since there are no people to grow it, there is less natural supply. Kong Tai was able to buy 500 catties of tung oil seeds and 300 catties of lacquer seeds, or because he paid a high price and collected a lot of bulk goods, he got so much.

Of course, if Kong Tai can stay in Guangzhou for a year and a half, long-term acquisitions, he will definitely be able to acquire more. However, because he did not qualify for tributary trade, Kong Tai certainly could not stay here for long. Therefore, this kind of hasty acquisition action naturally does not gain much.

But these are not less, a pound of tung oil tree seeds can reach thousands, which is still the reason why tung oil seeds are relatively large. According to the safe point method of two or three seeds in a pit (seeds may not germinate if sown, so two more neutrons are safed.) If all three seeds germinate, the best growing plant is left at the end and the other two are pulled out. Of course, if the land area is sufficient, the other two plants pulled out (or may not germinate) can also be transplanted elsewhere, but the growth will definitely not be as good as the one that is kept). Even if it is conservatively calculated according to half of the low germination rate, one pound of seeds can grow four or five hundred tung trees. The sumac seeds are much smaller, and one pound of seeds is estimated to be able to grow more than 1,000 sumac trees. Therefore, as long as the students take good care of it, the 500 catties of tung oil seeds and 300 catties of lacquer seeds purchased by Kong Tai can still grow at least more than 20,000 tung oil trees and more than 30,000 lacquer trees.

As for the 5 catties of moso bamboo, the moso bamboo seeds are very light, and the thousand seeds weigh about 24 grams. There are more than 20,000 bamboo seeds in 1 catty. If you are 5 catties, there are more than 100,000 grains...... Even if only half of them survived, 50,000 moso bamboos could be planted. Moreover, this thing grows fast, jumps quickly, and has extremely tenacious vitality......

……

Seeing that none of these three seeds could be purchased, and the acquisition on Sconda's side was still in progress, Conté did not want to be idle, so he opened up another acquisition business - tea acquisition......

You must know that because Europe and Daming have not yet opened a maritime trade route, and the Earl Grey milk tea invented by Marin is popular all over Europe, resulting in the extremely high price of tea in Europe now, it takes a war horse to exchange for a four-pound tea brick. And the price of a war horse is about 100 gold coins. Therefore, the current price of tea in Western Europe is as high as 25 gold coins a catty, which is ridiculously high.

Marin also forgot to ask Kong Tai to buy tea, but Kong Tai knew how popular tea was in Europe. Not to mention anything else, now European aristocrats entertain distinguished guests, and they like to use Earl Grey milk tea as a drink. Of course, this is for entertaining distinguished guests, ordinary guests, or drinking red wine is more economical...... The real reason is that tea is so expensive......

You must know that the tea bricks obtained by the Europeans were obtained by the Ming Dynasty on the northern border and the Mongols in the tea and horse exchange market. The Mongols can exchange 120 catties of brick tea for a Mongolian war horse, that is, 30 tea bricks. But when it was transported to Europe by overland trade routes, a tea brick was exchanged for a war horse, and the price increased by 30 times.

In fact, the Daming tea and horse market has already slaughtered Mongolian merchants. In the territory of the Ming Dynasty, tea was even cheaper. In the Guangzhou market, the price of good bud tea per catty is 80 Wen, which is 0.08 taels of silver. And ordinary leaf tea is only 20 wen a catty, which is 0.02 taels of silver. As for brick tea, the grade is lower, and it is the existence of low-grade leaf tea. The most expensive leaf tea is about 40 wen a catty, also known as fine tea. And the low-grade leaf tea is brick tea, which is only 15 wen a catty. Of course, the black tea tea bricks produced in Anhua, Funan are more famous, and the price is 20 wen a catty.

However, even if Anhua black tea is so expensive as 20 wen a catty, a 4 catty tea brick will only ask for 80 wen in Daming, which is 0.08 taels of silver. However, the black-hearted Ming official, with 30 tea bricks, exchanged for 1 high-quality Mongolian war horse. If you calculate the cost, even if you use Anhua black tea, it is only 2.4 taels of silver. With other unknown tea bricks, the cost is lower...... However, in the territory of the Ming Dynasty, the price of a war horse is more than a dozen taels of silver...... Therefore, the Daming tea and horse market actually pitted the herdsman's uncle, raising the price several times. However, there is nothing the steppe people can do about it. Because, this business is completely unique to Daming, don't buy it if you have the ability......

Kong Tai also heard from Ma Lin about Anhua black tea, so after the three seeds could not be purchased, he began to inquire about the source of Anhua black tea.

In fact, Marin doesn't like to drink black tea, he prefers green tea like Longjing. The problem is that green tea, including later black tea (which did not appear in this era), has a shorter shelf life. Generally speaking, green tea has a shelf life of only about one year, while black tea has a shelf life of 18 months, which is one and a half years.

However, at the current speed of the ship, it will take 10 months to sail back to Europe from Guangzhou - Nimad, and the tea shipped back to Europe is about to pass its expiration date, and it is still sold for hair?

Therefore, the black tea with the longest shelf life has become Marlin's first choice. You must know that even if black tea is loose tea, it has a shelf life of 5 courses and 10 years. The shelf life of black tea brick tea is more than 10 years......

In other words, if you transport the black tea bricks back, you won't have to worry about the tea leaves going bad. Unless, you're hungry and can't sell it at all......

However, because of Marin's promotion, it is now very popular to drink Earl Grey milk tea in Europe (mainly, coffee has not yet risen, and everyone can only drink milk tea). Therefore, as long as you don't buy too many goods, you can still sell them out within the shelf life. The shelf life of more than 10 years allows merchants to stock up with confidence......

And what is the profit of black tea tea bricks? Kong Tai made a calculation. In Guangzhou, the tea brick to buy an Anhua black tea is only 0.08 taels of silver. And in the European market, the price of black tea tea bricks is now 25 gold coins. According to the ratio of gold to silver at 1 to 12, it is worth 28.6 taels of silver. If you don't count the cost of freight, the price has increased by 357.5 times...... This is more profitable than silk and porcelain......

Of course, if a large number of black tea bricks are shipped back, the price of tea in Europe will definitely be reduced. But even if it is reduced by three times, and then the transportation cost is erased, there will always be a hundredfold profit......

Thinking of this, Kong Tai's heart was extremely hot. He halted Sconda's aggressive purchase of porcelain, drinks, and various other goods that took up space and weight, and waited for him to buy tea......

After inquiries from all sides, Kong Tai contacted all the tea merchants from Funan in Guangzhou City, and purchased 10,000 Anhua black tea tea bricks from these merchants at a high price of 100 Wen (original price 80) Anhua black tea tea bricks, that is, 40,000 catties of Anhua black tea.

After that, he bought 2,000 other types of tea bricks of slightly lower grade, and made up 48,000 catties of brick tea. If it weren't for the fact that the tea bricks in Guangzhou were out of stock, Kong Tai would have wanted to buy more. If these tea bricks are brought back to Europe, they can be exchanged for 12,000 war horses......

Of course, this is when the price of tea has not decreased. But pulling back so many tea bricks will definitely lead to a sharp drop in tea prices. However, no matter how much it falls, there will be more than 100 times the profit.

And the silk and porcelain purchased by Scanda are available in Silk Europe itself, but the quality is not good. The quality of Daming silk is a little better, but it can be sold at ten times the price at most (compared to the low price of Daming), and the profit is several times. The profit of porcelain is slightly higher, because the Europeans do not know how to fire porcelain, so this trade is unique. An ordinary porcelain bowl can also be sold for a gold coin when it is shipped back. The purchase price of ordinary porcelain bowls is only 5 yuan...... This also seems to be more than 200 times more profitable......

It's just that the market for those ordinary porcelain bowls is limited, and the purchase price of those gorgeous porcelain bottles and jars is also relatively high. Calculated together, the profit is dozens of times. This profit margin is higher than that of silk, but lower than that of brick tea.

However, although the profit of porcelain is high, transportation is a big problem. Because, porcelain is fragile. If it is casually stacked in the cabin, the porcelain can easily break in the event of strong winds and waves. Therefore, when transporting porcelain, it is necessary to have special wooden frames and boxes, and to fill the porcelain with cushions such as cotton. Therefore, the transportation of porcelain is a big problem and takes up a lot of space. Unlike raw silk and tea bricks, they can be stacked densely......

Therefore, in the end, the profit of porcelain is twenty or thirty times the sky, which is not as good as brick tea, and only a little higher than the profit of raw silk.

Therefore, in the end, when it was time to load the ship, Kong Tai asked for a limited load of tea bricks, followed by raw silk. Finally, reload porcelain and drink other goods......

Sure enough, because the wooden boxes and shelves needed for porcelain take up a lot of space and take up weight. In the end, Kong Tai was in charge and only kept those fine porcelains, such as blue and white porcelain and other high-end porcelain with patterns. As for the ordinary celadon bowls and other low-grade porcelain with a bare appearance, which were swept from the small porcelain shop, they were all discarded. Of course, he didn't lose it, but gave it to Ding Haishan, who was lifted by Guangzhou Bosi. Although these porcelains resisted, they were large in quantity, and they were worth more than 100 taels of silver. Kong Tai nominally said that he was "deposited" in Guangzhou City, but before leaving, he secretly told Ding Haishan "how to deal with love", that is, let him exchange money......

In addition, in order to make room for high-end profiteering goods such as tea bricks, porcelain, and silk, most of the rice seeds purchased by Sconda were also abandoned by Kongtai, and only a few sacks were kept for seeding. The rest was thrown directly on the dock and the people from the Yamen of the Chief Minister's Office were notified to come and give them to the hungry people......

After filling the cabins of the three ships, Kong Tai called Columbus, who had been fooling around in the Qinglou in Guangzhou for the past few days, and urged him to leave......

Because Columbus didn't understand Chinese, he could only let Conté and Sconda have full authority to deal with the matter of contact with the Ming Dynasty. As for himself, he has made old mistakes and can't control his lower body......

Kong Tai also knew the problem with this goods, but fortunately, the silver brought this time was very sufficient. So, Kong Tai found the largest Qinglou in Guangzhou, stuffed a few large silver ingots to the old bustard, and directly let Columbus live in the Qinglou...... It wasn't until the business was over that he called this guy back......

And when Columbus came out of the Qing Building, although he was not drunk, his steps were swaying three times - obviously collapsed......

In desperation, in order to prevent Columbus, the great navigator, from dying during the voyage, Kong Tai had to spend a lot of money to find a famous doctor in Guangzhou City, and prescribed a few pairs of expensive tonics, intending to replenish Columbus's kidney during the voyage. Otherwise, this guy will definitely hang up if he can't go back to China......